host: julie, let's start with the fiscal cliff. where does health policy, health care fit into this if at all? guest: obviously what -- there's nothing about the fiscal cliff that particularly impacts the health law. we do know that starting january 1, if congress does not act, there are these automatic cuts that take effect. compared is impacted only slightly. there will be 2% cut to payments to providers, not to beneficiaries, medicaid is excluded. however also on january 1, this is not part of this whole sequester piece, there is the problem medicare physician fees, the perennial problem, it happens to also expire in conjunction with everything else that happens on january 1. there would be a 27% cut to doctor payments under medicare, something that congress continues to not let happen, but they have to find several billion dollars, or if they want to make it go away for good, several hundred billion dollars to fix that problem. so there are a lot of health related issues involved in these negotiations. there are a lot of people